4.5.0 - Preview!

Thanks to everyone for sending in their reports off the back of the last announcement - I've spent the last few weeks working through bugs old and new, as well as adding in some small QoL tweaks.

As part of 4.5.0, I was finally able to update the engine, as GameMaker's last LTS version was back in 2022! Their newest update only came out in May this year, so there's a good few years of updates that broke some stuff. I also spent a lot of time doing performance tweaks + changes, plus used a different type of export that was broken before that is supposed to be FasterTM.

Because of all of these 'major' changes from a technical perspective, I thought it'd be better to do this update as a preview first so people can opt-in! I've taken a lot of time checking through all of the game, as well as testing with a bunch of different players' saves and multiplayer gameplay but I would appreciate if anyone has the time to go and check out 4.5.0 and make sure everything seems okay with their world / PC!

If you're interested in trying out the 4.5.0 preview, first MAKE A COPY OF YOUR SAVE FILES - just in case anything happens! On Windows your save files are in "%localappdata%/APICO", MacOS it's in Application Support.

To access the preview branch: - Go to Steam, click on APICO, click the settings 'cog' button - Go to "Properties" - Go to "Game Versions & Betas" - Click the "preview_patch" branch - Close the settings popup

Steam will begin downloading the 4.5.0 update and then you can try it out! You can read the full patch notes of what's changed and what's been fixed below. Nothing major has been added, APICO is finished after all (sorry!), but there were some small QoL that were quick to add that I felt was worth doing so I snuck them in also :)

If you run into any issues, please let me know! Either using the form in-game, the forums here on Steam, or just email me - ell@tngineers.com.

While I continue testing 4.5.0 (and fixing any stuff that might come up from the preview players!) I'll be preparing the console submissions for Switch/PS/Xbox, which will still be a little while off yet. When the PC 4.5.0 seems stable enough I'll make it live and release non-steam versions (itch / amazon / epic etc) too, which hopefully won't be too far away!

Thanks again to all of you, and appreciate your patience with this one <3

~ Ell

Changes

• Updated engine from GameMaker LTS 2022 to GameMaker LTS 2026

• Improved initial start-up speed for loading the default world

• Improved hopper/plopper/logger performance with large number of menu objects nearby

• Improved picker/sprinkler performance and optimised offscreen usage

• Various small performance improvements across the game (mainly around beehives + lighting)

• Slightly increased golden butterfly/solitary bee/fish base chances

• Unpinned menus now open in the center of the screen to prevent automatically opening and getting cutoff

• Once you've restored a reef, you can place "Restored Coral" on shallow water to make your own reef biomes (same as when you use the crystal shovel to dig up restored coral!)

• Hivetools can now stock/harvest frames from uncapping machines (stock filled/extract uncapped) and extracting machines (stock uncapped/extract empty)

• Added small indicator icons to differentiate empty/filled/uncapped frames

• Crystal Shovel can now also be used for Apicobalt Shovel function (digging up ground)

• Changed butterfly box sorting to be species book order, regular then golden

• Opening player inventory now selects the equipped slot on gamepad

• Luck Idol usage in multiplayer now applies to all players rather than just the altar user

• Made hivewand selection clearer when using

Bug Fixes

• Fixed some issues around wrong buffers being cleaned up during saving/loading

• Fixed some visual caching not reset when hoppers removed items from machines (i.e. the hive 'filled' honey drips)

• Fixed mutated offspring not inheriting 'beeatrice' from the parent queen

• Fixed a slight visual delay sometimes with the camera

• Fixed some lagging around some automation machines with 'reasonable' usage

• Fixed heater/cooler icon hidden underneath 'blessed' icon sometimes

• Fixed heater/cooler icon position sometimes being off by a couple pixels

• Fixed frames dropped from hives via hive tool not visually showing as filled

• Fixed some facial hair being offset slightly on the map view

• Fixed npc dialogue options box not always scrolling correctly

• Fixed hoppers moving mainlander money from shippers back into shippers

• Fixed beebank RHS storage scroll not resetting when changing species

• Fixed butterfly book not always being localised correctly when loading other languages

• Fixed grass footsteps not playing when you have the rubberring in your inventory

• Fixed default inventory sort not sorting deep-sea bees in book species order

• Fixed underwater crates having no tooltip name

• Fixed not being able to use the hivewand on wooden walls on gamepad

• Fixed resonators offscreen sometimes working incorrectly

• Fixed hovering over 'Claimed!' book text showing an error tooltip

• Fixed some inconsistent butterfly spawning if butterflies already spawned this session

• Fixed making new world in multiplayer spawning duplicate books

• Fixed pencil labels not syncing properly in multiplayer

• Fixed plopper distribution visual not showing for clients in multiplayer (even tho liquid values were correct)

• Fixed a crash with avatar rendering in multiplayer

• Fixed some issues with beebanks in multiplayer

• Fixed altar usage in multiplayer not syncing notifications

• Fixed some slowdown on mp clients joining worlds sometimes

• Fixed butterfly spawns in multiplayer being unlimited sometimes

• Fixed ploppers not always setting the tank type

• Fixed modding workbench crashing when opened on MacOS

• Maybe fixed that fuckin' white map thing!!!